Solidarity 340, 15 October 2014

Tackling rugby club sexism

The men’s rugby club at the London School of Economics has been disbanded, after circulating a sexist, classist and homophobic leaflet at this year’s freshers fair. The text of the leaflet mocks students at “poly” universities, describes women as “mingers” and “trollops” and says that the club will not tolerate “outright homosexual debauchery”. But this is not the first time the team has ran into trouble with the students’ union over offensive behaviour. As statement from the LSE student union shows the club have previously been known to dress as Guantanamo Bay detainees and imitate praying as...

Yes does not mean left

Colin Foster is right to argue that the labour movement and working class will be weakened and divided by a mindset which identifies “yes” (to Scottish independence) with “left”, and “no” to independence with “right”. ( Solidarity , 339). The problem is that that mindset is now hardwired into the pro-independence left. There are a number of overlapping reasons for this, largely rooted in the political culture of much of the far left in Scotland (and, by extension, of much of the far left outside of Scotland). Those reasons, with differing degrees of relevance to different factions within the...

Italian students lead the way against Renzi

Friday 10 October saw the first mass national protest against the latest reactionary reform of the Italian educational system introduced by the goverment of Matteo Renzi. This version of the article is longer than in the printed paper. 80,000 university and school students, together with teachers, assistants, cleaners, were joined by thousands of others. The largest single turnout was in Rome, where 20,000 marched behind a banner reading "They Fear Us United!" and called for a free, secular public system; an end to public susidy to the schools of the Catholic Church; and massive increase in...

China versus Hong Kong unions

Anonymous emails have been sent to Hong Kong media alleging that the only independent union movement in China — the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions — is in the pay of the United States. The South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong Standard have reported that they received emails with attachments showing that the HKCTU had received US$ 2 million from the AFL-CIO , USA national union centre’s key aid agency the Solidarity Center. “A labour rights group that backs Occupy Central has received grants from a US-based NGO, according to files shared with the media,” the South China Morning...

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